Research Paper on Socialism

Socialism is a commonly misunderstood topic by many Americans, including myself. We have all heard some variations of the exact definition; socialism is a pro-government intervention to improve society by reducing inequality. At this point, in my experience, anyone that's against the government stops listening and immediately gets their defenses up. What many Americans fail to realize is that even though they, as my politics class book "We the People" by Benjamin Ginsberg et al. says, "hold at least some libertarian or socialist views, most describe themselves as either liberal, conservatives, or moderates" (Ginsberg et al. 188). My family is conservative, and I lean liberal, but the quote makes me wonder if we are part of the population that misidentify our political views. Socialism is a commonly misunderstood system, but its goal is to have peace and harmony throughout society. 

Socialism was invented in the seventeenth century by French scholars that wanted the world to be "just and harmonious" (Pejovich 118). Many people would agree with such a worthy goal as that is what many consider the perfect state of the world. We can't begin to talk about socialism without first introducing Karl Marx. He was born in 1818 and died in 1883 with many accomplishments. What differentiated him from other socialists during that time was that he criticized "German socialists for insisting on income equalities and French socialists for believing that socialism has only to be discovered by reason to conquer the world" (Pejovich 118). He was a revolutionary whose works were considered the foundation of many communist regimes and socialist movements in the twentieth century. The twentieth century began on January first, 1901, and ended on December thirty-first in the year two-thousand. The twentieth century was an era filled with many life-changing events as well as triumphs and tragedies. Events like these included World War I, World War II, nuclear weapons, Spanish flu, Cold War, and space exploration. This era also saw deforestation at a never-before-seen rate, mass extinction of many species, and last but not most minor global warming caused by the human population. When it comes to systems, during that century, fascism was defeated and communism as well. Democracy was then introduced and gained popularity in Latin America, East Europe, and many other places. Another important event during the twentieth century was that capitalism and socialism were in the middle of a century-long battle in Europe and North America. One of the main goals that societies had during the twentieth century was to make up a definition of what universal human rights would look like and how to defend them and try to maintain peace.

The best way to define socialism during the twentieth century is to define its goals: rule through law and prioritize the community rather than the individual. Socialist institutions in the twentieth century were "top-down income policies, provide social insurance coverage, mandate educational choices and spurn market prices in favor of price controls" (Pejovich 119). The common belief back then is that "Socialism recognizes an evil part of human beings and believes that most are capable of being educated toward good… socialist practice normally views oppressors as evil" (Yang 168). In other words, socialism during the twentieth century saw that humans could sometimes take actions that hurt the community, which would be considered evil actions. However, it also mentions that even though those people may do evil acts, they can still be educated to see how to help the community. Socialism believes that there should be a guiding force. Still, instead of it being an individual, it should be the community. As Baiyin Yang said, "socialism places value on mastery but emphasizes that all of society, not just a few elite, should be masters of the world" (Yang 169). That twentieth-century socialism failed to gain traction, so socialists were forced to rethink socialism and invent a different type of socialism, liberal/modern socialism.

Modern socialism refers to the socialism that began after the twentieth century, so the twenty-first. The natural question that comes to mind when discussing socialism and twenty-first-century socialism is, why is it two different socialisms? It is a simple answer that has to do with Karl Marx as much of socialism does, "Marx's critical emphasis upon human development disappeared in the twentieth-century socialist experiments" (Lebowitz 36). The best way for me to explain what socialism is in the twenty-first century is to first go through what it's not, "it is not a society where the owners of the means of production benefit by dividing workers and communities to drive down wages and intensify work" (Lebowitz 26). Socialism in the twenty-first century is not capitalism nor totalitarianism, or communism. The quote specifically refers to how the capitalist system is set up where the owners of businesses benefit by hurting the working class and keeping them from climbing up the economic ladder.  Understanding what socialism is can't only be done by looking at what it's not. We must have also taken into consideration what it is. 

Now let's define what it is, " the top-down control of economic activities, including resource allocation; and the top-down predetermination of outcomes … supports free and democratic elections, and it accepts private property rights" (Pejovich 120). Another way to define socialism in the modern world would be to define what a modern socialist thinks. For instance, a modern socialist is a person who doesn't rely on scientific reasoning to make decisions, but they do rely on generous and impetuous reasoning (Cook 25). Socialism, when it was first created, was made up of people who based their decisions solely on scientific reasoning. Another definition of modern socialism comes from John E. Roemer stating, "Thus, I would define socialism as consisting of socialist equality of opportunity (the distributive principle) and a cooperative/solidaristic behavioral ethos" (Roemer 308). This definition is a simple one that says there are only two requirements for socialism: equal opportunity and the other for the population to be cooperative. Another aspect of modern socialism is that "Large wealth differences may be so precluded, to the extent that wealth, at least if it can be inherited, destroys equality of opportunity across time" (Roemer 309). This wealth difference isn't necessarily bad, but it is when it goes on for a long time, and they get rid of equal opportunity for future generations that inherit wealth and those that don't. Socialism, when it is implemented into a society, has no religious faith, subjective and positional truth, collective, focused toward the common good, is future-oriented, and its vision is communism (Yang 168). Liberal socialism is slowly persuading more people to join by adjusting its original principle to the modern world. Still, the understanding of socialism in the current world varies widely.

Before reading the articles, I had no idea what socialism was. I didn't even know there were two different types of socialism pre-twenty-first century socialism and modern socialism. We all have heard others talking about socialism, and everyone has very diverse opinions on the subject. Like my uncle, business owners, some people would rather keep the current system than move into a socialist environment. Others like my cousin want nothing more than for this country to be socialist. They have gotten into debates before, but I have never been able to participate due to a lack of knowledge on what socialism is. The only information I had on socialism is from politics classes I have taken in the past, which come from vague textbook definitions. After having read the articles, I now have a better idea of what socialism is. Socialism, to me, is the system between capitalism and communism. It may seem like an odd way of describing a social system, but it is the most concise description in my mind.

Given that I only read a couple of articles, I didn't grasp the true meaning of socialism, but I did get an overall idea. Socialism seems like a system made of peace and harmony since one of its roots is equal opportunity. Many countries, including the United States, believe they have equal opportunity in their systems but do not in reality. For example, in the United States, there is even still segregation in housing zones and public schools, so how can the US have equal opportunity when even its schools are segregated. Socialism, to me, is a peaceful, equal system that I will look more into to see if any other of my views align. 

The driving question was, what is socialism? When I started, I knew almost nothing about socialism. Like many other people, I was confused and lost when anyone talked about socialism around me or with me. I believe that is why many people try to avoid talking about socialism or other related political topics because they are scared since they don't fully understand the system. Socialism may seem like a scary topic, but once people dig a bit deeper and read a couple of articles about it, one can see that everybody's scared reaction is often overreacting. I am glad I took the time to investigate what socialism meant today, earlier in the twenty-first century and the twentieth century. This was a learning experience that I really enjoyed, and I learned a lot more about socialism. This topic was unfamiliar to me, and I learned something new after all; that is what college is about.